In the medical field, a connector for connecting several kinds of medical tubes is used to form a liquid transfusion, a blood transfusion, dialysis, or a blood collection circuits. The representative connector used in such a case is a commonly normalize luer connector having a tapered shape.
The luer connector is generally formed by a female luer connector and a male luer connector, in which one of medical tubes is connected to the male luer connector and the other medical tube is connected to the female luer connector. Further, by coupling the male luer connector with the female luer connector, the one of the medical tubes and the other medical tube are communicated with each other. In this time, the inner peripheral wall of a tapered shape formed to the female luer connector and the outer peripheral wall of a tapered shape formed to a male luer part of the male luer connector are liquid tightly contacted. The male luer connector is fixed to the female luer connector with this contact condition, whereby the coupling between the male luer connector and the female luer connector is completed and the liquid tightness for connecting the medical tubes can be secured.
The female luer connector may include a normally closed valve mechanism mounted to the opening portion thereof, in which the valve mechanism is closed when the male luer connector is not coupled to the female luer connector. Therefore, a liquid within the medical tubes is not leaked from the female luer connector when it is not coupled with the male luer connector. On the other hand, when the female luer connector is coupled to the male luer connector, the above valve mechanism is opened to communicate the female luer connector with the male luer connector. In this condition, when the liquid is delivered from one of the medical tube connected to the male luer connector to the male luer connector, the liquid flows from the male luer connector to the female luer connector and further flows from the female luer connector to the other medical tube connected to the female luer connector. In this way, the one of the medical tube connected to the male luer connector is communicated with the other medical tube connected to the female luer connector.
For such a luer connector, for example, JP 07-505064 discloses a luer connector in which an elastic silicone sealer is attached to the opening portion of the female luer connector and a spike part having a sharp tip is placed within the silicone sealer. Within the spike part, a flow path is formed and the spike part has an opening near the tip end. The medical tube is connected to the basal end portion of the spike part. When the male luer part of the male luer connector presses the tip end opening of the female luer connector, the elastic silicone sealer is opened to couple with the male luer part.